2022 Summer Garden Festival
Scotland’s Summer Garden Festival gets underway this weekend with a packed programme of outdoor events that will encourage more visitors than ever to enjoy Scotland’s wonderful gardens.
From performances of David Walliam’s ‘Awful Auntie’ amongst the sweeping lawns of Castle Kennedy near Stranraer and ‘A Mid Summer Night’s Dream’ at Ellon Castle Gardens in Aberdeenshire, to pipe bands and cheerleaders during a Platinum Jubilee garden party at Dunrobin Castle near Golspie, there’s plenty of theatre and music on offer.
Art features strongly too, with exhibitions at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, at Logan Botanic Garden in the Rinns of Galloway and at Benmore in the Borders, while New Hopetoun Gardens at Newton in West Lothian will be staging ‘Art in the Garden’, when the grounds of the garden centre will feature work by a selection of Scottish sculptors working in all kinds of interesting materials.
St Andrews Botanic Gardens will be running a whole programme of events aimed at children and its Great Big BioBlitz is open to anyone who wants to help survey the garden’s wildlife.
There will be fetes and fairs too, including at Saughton Park in Edinburgh, and at Ardchattan Priory at Oban, while Ashbrook Nursery at Forfar will be holding a ‘Summer Shindig’.
Find out more about what it takes to keep a great garden in shape, with guided walks with the head gardener at Drumlanrig Castle at Thornhill and at Archerfield near Dirleton, while Armadale Castle on Skye has a whole summer of family fun lined up, along with craft markets and floristry workshops.
The Summer Garden Festival is organised by Discover Scottish Gardens, a network of almost 100 gardens, parks and estates that are open to the public and director, Dougal Philip, says: “Scotland’s gardens aren’t just packed with beautiful plants and trees, but they are also much-loved social spaces for people of all ages, and the Summer Garden Festival, with activities for everyone, is another way of discovering, exploring and enjoying them.”